AHRC-NSF MOU: The Impact of Transitional Justice on Human Rights and Democracy

过渡时期司法对人权和民主的影响何时、如何以及为何能加强民主并遏制侵犯人权行为？本项目通过对1970年以来从独裁统治过渡的国家的人权审判、真相委员会和大赦的统计和案例分析来探讨这些问题。它旨在建立理论来解释这些机制的成功，解决现有的关于成功的相互矛盾的结果，培训在这一领域工作的研究人员，并为成功的国际和国内过渡时期司法、民主和人权政策做出贡献。这两位研究人员之前的项目产生了相互矛盾的结果。明尼苏达大学的凯瑟琳·西金（Kathryn Sikkink）的研究小组发现，审判在人权方面取得了成功。牛津大学（University of Oxford）的利·佩恩（Leigh Payne）的研究团队也认为，审判对改善人权和民主至关重要，但只有在与大赦或大赦和真相委员会相结合的情况下。为了协调结果，研究人员计划合并他们的数据库，以发现差异，制定共同的定义，并提供更细致的机制类型分类。合并的结果是开发一个可公开访问的数据库，用于制定过渡时期司法理论和政策。研究人员计划开发的理论框架包括对试验成功的三种解释。现有理论主张，审判应通过司法强制、人权规范和社会化进程的扩展以及法治制度的发展来发挥威慑作用。研究人员将进一步探讨与大赦和真相委员会有关的审判的成功，以进一步发展正义平衡的理论方法。这项研究直接涉及促进各国从公开冲突过渡到和平与稳定的因素。它结合了对青年学者和研究生在定量和定性研究方法方面的先进培训。研究人员将使由此产生的数据库向公众开放，以便为其他学者和实践者进一步进行过渡时期司法研究提供机会。该项目的调查结果将在学术会议和学术期刊上、在国际和国内政府组织和非政府组织的会议上以及在项目网站上发表。该项目与联合王国艺术与人文研究理事会（AHRC）合作协调

The Impact of Transitional Justice on Human Rights and DemocracyWhen, how, and why does transitional justice strengthen democracy and deter human rights violations? This project explores those questions using statistical and case study analyses of human rights trials, truth commissions, and amnesties in countries transitioning from authoritarian rule since 1970. It aims to build theory to explain the success of these mechanisms, resolve existing contradictory results on success, train researchers working in this field, and contribute to successful international and domestic policies on transitional justice, democracy, and human rights.The two researchers' previous projects produced contradictory results. Kathryn Sikkink's research team at the University of Minnesota found that trials achieve success on human rights. Leigh Payne's research team based at the University of Oxford concurs that trials are essential to improvements in human rights and democracy, but only when combined with amnesties or amnesties and truth commissions. To reconcile results, the researchers plan to merge their data bases to find discrepancies, develop common definitions, and provide more nuanced categories of types of mechanisms. The result of the merger is to develop a publicly accessible data base to be used to develop transitional justice theory and policies. The theoretical framework the researchers plan to develop involves three explanations for the success of trials. Existing theory claims that trials should have a deterrence effect through judicial enforcement, the expansion of human rights norms and socialization processes, and the development of rule of law systems. The researchers will further explore the success of trials in relationship with amnesties and truth commissions to further develop a justice balance theoretical approach. The research is directly engaging with the factors that facilitate countries in their transition from open conflict to peace and stability. It incorporates the advanced training of young scholars and graduate students in quantitative and qualitative research methods. The researchers will make the resultant data base publicly accessible in order to provide the opportunity for further transitional justice research by other scholars and practitioners. The findings for the project will be presented at academic conferences and in scholarly journals, at meetings in international and domestic governmental and non-governmental organizations, and on the project website.Project is coordinated in cooperation with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of the United Kingdom